Last Friday, on March 28th, Professor Xiao Feng Wang, a computer science professor at Indiana University, had his two residences in Indiana raided by FBI agents. On the same day, Indiana University terminated the employment of this professor, who had been serving for over twenty years. The nearly simultaneous actions have sparked public attention.
This event had been foreshadowed. According to Alex Stanford, a law professor at Indiana University and chair of the union branch, in early March, Xiao Feng Wang had proactively contacted him, mentioning that the university was reviewing one of his grant applications. Xiao Feng Wang was then restricted from accessing his office and using the university’s computers.
Last Friday, he informed Stanford via a brief email: “I have been fired.” The university did not specify the exact reasons for his termination in the email. Not long after, FBI agents appeared at his residence.
Subsequently, the university deleted Xiao Feng Wang’s information from the Indiana University official website. His wife, Nianli Ma, who worked as a systems analyst and programmer at the university library, also had her records removed.
Indiana University stated: “Upon the request of the FBI, the university will not comment on the investigation. Following university protocol, no statement will be made regarding Xiao Feng Wang’s personal status.”
Xiao Feng Wang is a tenured professor at Indiana University, specializing in system security and data privacy. His research areas include mobile and cloud computing security, as well as privacy issues in the dissemination of human genome data.
Archived data shows that Xiao Feng Wang served as the Associate Dean of Research at the Rudy College of Indiana University and received funding from multiple federal agencies, accumulating a total of $23 million in research projects either led or participated by him.
Meanwhile, Xiao Feng Wang’s connections with mainland China have also drawn attention.
Public records show that he has made multiple trips to China to participate in activities: in 2014, he was in Shanghai attending a conference hosted by the China Computer Federation; from 2015 to 2022, he visited Beijing Jiaotong University, Xidian University, East China Normal University in Shanghai, and Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications to give lectures; many of these universities have close collaborations with the People’s Liberation Army in China.